


Crieghton

by SummerDelight



Category: The Streets of San Francisco
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26054881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerDelight/pseuds/SummerDelight
Summary: He was the one who Crieghton wanted dead. It was his fault that Mike had gotten caught up in Grieghton's twisted need for revenge. And now he was going to put an end to it once and for all. And if that meant stepping over the line and breaking the law, then, that's what he's going to do to protect his friends.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

** Prologue **

Steve Keller joined the small group of medical personal as they rushed to the back of the ambulance. Within moments, the back door of the ambulance was open, and hands carefully pulled out the stretcher from within before Bill Tanner climbed out and began to follow the stretcher. Steve's breath caught in his throat as he caught the first sight of his partner and closest friend. Mike's head was swathed in bloody bandages, an oxygen mask covered the lower half of his bruised and battered face, and his head and neck were firmly held still by two square pieces of plastic red covered foam neck braces that were strapped into place on both sides of his head, preventing him from moving his head or neck.

"Mike?" The soft whisper escaped from between Steve's lips as he stepped towards the injured man.

"Not now!"

The doctor's gruff order halted Steve’s forward movement and he watched as the stretcher bearing its precious cargo was rushed past him and through the open doors leading to the Emergency Room. Rubbing a hand over his hair before allowing it to drop limply back down to his side, he turned and stared at the doors as they slid closed in front of him, making no attempt to follow.

"Steve? What are you doing here?" Bill frowned, stopping in surprise when he saw Steve standing in front of the Emergency room doors before quickly looking around, searching for the officers who were supposed to be protecting him. Seeing none of the officers whom he was searching for, Bill looked back at Steve who was standing, motionless, in front of the Emergency Room doors before softly admonishing him. "You're not supposed to leave the safe house. Where are the officers who Mike assigned to guard you?"

"Was it Grieghton?" Steve asked, ignoring Bill’s questions as he continued to stare at the closed doors.

"Steve…"

"I asked if Grieghton was responsible for what happened to Mike?" Steve demanded again as he spun around to face the older man.

"Yeah, we think so…"

Steve, the guilt he was feeling only too evident on his face, ran his hand over the back of his head as he turned and looked back at the closed doors that led into the Emergency Room.

"Look Steve, this isn't your fault." Bill tried to reassure his friend, gently placing a hand on Steve's shoulder as he tried to guide the upset man into the relative safety that the Emergency Room offered, and away from any potential threats that came with Steve being outside and unprotected.

Shrugging free of Bill's light hold, Steve suddenly spun around and ran back towards his car that was parked haphazardly in the ambulance bay as he ordered over his shoulder, "Stay here with Mike, Bill, I don't want you to let him out of your sight, not even for a minute."

"Wait Steve, where do you think you are going?" Bill called after him as Steve reached the car and opened the door.

Looking back over the roof of the car at Bill, Steve answered with a soft, dangerous growl, "I'm going to find Grieghton, and then I'm going to put an end to this once and for all!"


	2. Chapter 2

** One week earlier **

The deafening sounds of the prison alarm echoed off the cement walls of the cell blocks that surrounded the exercise yard as the prison guards in the yard desperately tried to regain control, only to fall beneath a barrage of punches and kicks. High above in the guard towers, the tower guards removed the rifles they had slung over their shoulders and aimed them down into the yard at the prisoners who ran to join in the melee. 

Grabbing two canister of tear gas, the Lieutenant loaded the riot gun and fired the two rounds of tear gas into the middle of the brawling prisoners, causing them to scatter in confusion as white clouds of the white noxious gas began to swirl across the yard. Lowering his gun, he quickly reloaded it as he watched the gate to the exercise yard open and more guards rushed into the yard swinging their truncheons, striking any prisoner who resisted or refused to drop and lay spread-eagle on the ground, taking back control of the yard.

The white clouds of tear gas thinned into streams of wispy mist-like tendrils that twisted and swirled in the light breeze as the yard fell quiet except for the yelled demands of the guards for the prisoners to get down and stay down. Nodding his approval of how his guards had reacted, the Lieutenant’s allowed his finger to relax on the trigger as the last of the fighting prisoners were roughly pulled apart and led, none too gently, out of the yard before the rest of the prisoners were given the order to return to their cells.

A soft curse escaped from between his lips when the smoke from the tear gas dissipated completely and the last of the prisoners had left the yard revealing a battered and bloody body in the middle of the yard. Even from the distance of the guard tower, he did not need the guard who ran across and checked the man’s vitals to shake his head to let him know the man was dead, the amount of pooling blood in the dust around the body was more than enough to tell him that the large shank he could see sticking out of the prisoner’s back had done its job. 

\-------------------------------------------------------- 

Removing his gun out of its holster, Steve placed it in the tray, where Mike had just placed his own weapon, before he reached into his pockets and removed his car keys, badge and handcuffs, adding them to the tray. After scribbling his signature at the bottom of the paperwork that the guard working the reception desk slid across at him to sign, he turned and joined Mike, passing through a metal detector before they followed the warden through the maze of prison’s corridors.

“You said on the phone that a fight broke out just before the stabbing?” Mike asked, ignoring the angry threats, cursing and shouts as prisoners banged on the cell doors, demanding to be released from the enforced lock-down as they walked past the cells.

The warden nodded as he opened the door leading out to the exercise yard and led them outside. “That’s right, my men told me that it all started over a basketball before punches were traded and all hell broke loose and the whole yard erupted into a free-for-all brawl. It took two rounds of tear gas and twenty extra guards to regain control of the yard.” Reaching the sheet covered body, lying in the middle of the dirt exercise yard, the warden knelt down and lifted the bloodstained material back, exposing the body, as he looked back up at the Homicide officers. “The fight was a diversion, after the guards managed to break it up,” the warden tilted his head in the direction of the body as Mike and Steve leaned a little closer to get a better look, “he was dead with a shank in his back.”

“Willie Rodgers!” Steve breathed, shocked as he recognized the victim before he looked at the warden, who nodded, and asked, “I thought Rodgers was supposed to be kept in protective custody, so why wasn’t he?”

“You know him?” Mike asked, looking at his partner in surprise.

Steve gave a single, stiff, curt nod as he kept his attention on the warden, waiting for an answer.

“Yes, you’re right, he was supposed to be in protective custody, but I have no idea what the hell he was doing out here, unprotected, in general population but I do intend to find out why he was!” The warden told them as he dropped the sheet back down over the body before rising to his feet and dusting off the fine dirt from the exercise yard that now covered his pants’ legs.

“Anyone suspects come to mind who could be responsible for the stabbing?” Mike asked, slightly distracted, as Steve turned turn away and stared up at the surrounding cell buildings, running his hand over the back of his head and leaving resting on the nape of his neck, in what Mike had to come to recognised was a sign that Steve was really upset, as they waited for the warden to answer.

“Plenty!” the warden sighed as he looked across the exercise yard and watched the organized activity around him as several uniformed SFPD officers and prison guards searched the exercise yard for more hidden weapons while the SFPD crime lab specialists searched for any forensic evidence. “There’s a big contract out on Rodgers and there are lots of guys in here who would be happy to collect, that’s why he was placed in protective custody-”

“Only he wasn’t in protective custody, was he?” Steve growled hotly, spinning back around to face the warden, “He was out here in the yard, unprotected.”

“No, he wasn’t,” the warden reluctantly agreed with Steve again.

“No, he wasn’t and now he’s dead!” Steve glared angrily at the warden for a moment before he suddenly looked back down at the body.

“And now he’s dead,” the warden parroted the younger man’s words, acutely aware that no matter the circumstances leading up to how a segregated prisoner ended up in the exercise yard with the rest of the general population of the prison despite having a contract placed on his head, the ultimate responsibility ended with him. He sighed as Steve turned away to stare at the faces staring and jeering down at them from the surrounding cell block windows as he softly murmured again, “And now he’s dead.”

After casting a quick, concerned glance at his upset partner, Mike returned his attention back to the warden and ordered, “We are going to need a complete list of every prisoner and prison guard who was out in the yard today when the riot went down-”

“Now wait a God damn minute, Lieutenant, you’re not suggesting that one of my own men might have been involved in Rodgers’s murder, are you?”

“Well, someone is responsible for Rodgers being taken out of segregation and placed out in the yard in general population to be murdered!” Steve snapped as he spun back around to glare at the warden.

“Steve!”

Taking a deep breath to regain control of his swirling emotions, Steve nodded and walked away before looking up at the placement of the guard towers, trying to work out just what the guards in the towers might have seen during the melee as Mike continued to question the warden. He frowned as he stared up at the middle tower, glancing back at the sheet covered body before looking back up and making momentary eye contact with the armed guard who was staring back down at him.

He jumped when Mike lightly touch his arm in a silent gesture that they had finished all they needed to do at the crime scene, and it was time to leave. He turned to discover that the warden had already left the scene and that Bernie had arrived to prepare and transport the body back to the morgue where he would carry out the autopsy later, although the cause of death was obvious.

“Are you okay, Buddy boy?” Mike asked quietly, feeling the tension in Steve’s arm underneath his hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Steve answered softly as he cast a last quick glance across at the body as Bernie’s assistant unzipped the zipper of the black body bag that was laying on the stretcher in preparation to moving Rodgers’s body before he turned and headed back towards the door that led back to the reception area.

Glancing back at the body, Mike wondered why Rodgers’s death had upset Steve so much. Turning back, he watched as Steve headed back towards the door that led back to the reception area, seemingly unaware that he was still standing there. He frowned as he slowly began to follow, determined to find out how well Steve knew the victim and why this murder had gotten under Steve’s skin as much as it had.


End file.
